Gallery by Greg Barnett
Princeton – Princeton isn’t accustomed to low-scoring battles. But missing 1,600 yards of total offense, the Tigers had to make do and did so effectively.
Princeton won the turnover battle 3-0 shuttering Beckley’s offense in a 14-7 win over the Flying Eagles Friday night at Hunnicutt Stadium.
With leading receiver Brad Mossor and rusher Marquel Lowe serving one-game suspensions after they were ejected when the Tigers last played two weeks ago at Winfield, the Tigers had to find a way to manufacture points. The solution was an easy one – give the ball to Penn State commit Daniel Jennings 24 times and prosper.
The junior standout, best known for his exploits on the defensive side of the ball, answered rushing for 203 yards and a touchdown on 23 attempts and turning his one reception into a 47-yard score.
“The line was doing great,” Jennings smiled. “Coach gave us a good pep talk at halftime and that helped.”
Of Jennings’ 250 yards from scrimmage, 228 came in the second half as did 19 of his 24 touches.
The shift came after the offense struggled to maintain drives and even get on the field in the first half.
Beckley was partially responsible for that, running 35 plays to Princeton’s 14 in the first half with the visitor’s first two drives consuming 31 plays. But Princeton’s defense refused to break. Beckley’s first drive ended at the Princeton 2 after four attempts to score inside the 2 came up empty. One of Marvi Howard’s two interceptions came in the final three minutes of the half and thwarted another Beckley drive, giving the Flying Eagles just a 7-0 advantage at the break despite their dominance.
“(We had a) touchdown called back and couldn’t get in down here on the 1,” Beckley head coach Street Sarrett said. “Those are big time – we left some points on the field. Kids played tough.”
Beckley’s lone score came on a one-yard rush from Bryce Ford with 4:55 to go in the first half and was the lone sign of life shown on offense through the first 24 minutes.
Needing a spark, Princeton found one out of the break.
Runs of 13 and 15 yards kept the Tigers on schedule before a loss and pair of incompletions brought up the biggest decision of the night for Princeton. Facing fourth-and-14 at the Beckley 47, the Tigers kept their offense on the field and dialed up a middle screen to Jennings who raced to the end zone to even the game.
“We’ve been working on that play for a couple weeks now,” Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said. “Haven’t had an opportunity to really show anything, because we’ve been kind of vanilla. We knew that if we were able to get the snap, get the ball to where we need to get it to, they were going to bring some pressure because their defensive coordinator does a great job bringing pressure. But we knew he was going to bring some pressure off the edge there. Coach (Chris) Belcher, he’s the guy that pulls rabbits out of his hat all the time. We knew if Daniel caught it we were going to house it. If you saw 55 there, he was real close to getting his hands on it but it was a perfect ball by Chance (Barker). I think that was the turning point in the game, because we’re having a hard time finding our footing at all offensively. But we stepped up and made a great play.”
“It surprised me a little bit that we called it there,” Jennings smiled. “In practice we ran it and practiced it every day we got after it when it came to the game. I turned around and just saw green.”
The play evened the score and flipped the game on both sides.
After dominating the ball in the first half, the Flying Eagles struggled to maintain drives in the second. They ran just 19 plays after the intermission with only one drive lasting long than seven plays, netting just 29 yards and ending with a fourth-down interception picked by R.J. Coatney.
The Tigers meanwhile finished with 30 plays, riding the Jennings to the finish line.
His 42-yard touchdown run with 1:32 remaining in the third quarter gave the Tigers the lead and the defense stood its ground the rest of the way as Howard intercepted Beckley QB Gage Price for the second time two plays into the fourth quarter. The turnover killed a drive that saw the visitors reach the Princeton 40.
“We noticed when No. 2 (Christian Stewart) is in the game they like to throw the ball a lot,” Howard explained “All you gotta do is play and hope he happens to throw one to you.”
Beckley’s struggles on offense in the second half weren’t limited to just turnovers. The Flying Eagles managed just 48 yards (2.5 per play) after accumulating 152 (4.3 per play) in the first half.
“They kept the ball from us,” Sarrett said. “They ran the ball and kind of did what we did to them in the first half. There wasn’t no defensive adjustments. We just got behind the chains a little bit. We get a holding call or a chop block call there, and it hurts you.”
“Hats off to Coach (Eric) McClanahan,” Taylor said. “We worked that passing game. We thought for a second because Brad and Marquel were out that they might think they can exploit us a little bit on the edge. We had a couple guys out there that weren’t going to really be used to playing in coverage. If they’re a ground and pound team, you’re not expecting them to throw. But their quarterback can sling it and they got some athletes out there. We were having a hard time being in our 50 front and they put you in a bad spot, because you want to run 50 to stop the run. But we’re not really good covering out of 50.
“So we went to a base look. That was coach McClanahan’s adjustment at halftime. He said, ‘Hey, we’re going to live with it and we’re going to die with it.’ But the thing that really changed is our guys just executed the game plan. They were kicking us out and running off-tackle, which is what they want to do. They do a great job at it, but our defensive ends weren’t squeezing right at first. They were waiting a little bit and hesitating. And if you do that against a wing-T team, or a double-wing team, they’re going to crease you. I thought their backs ran hard, but I thought they got tired.”
For Princeton it was a successful night on multiple fronts. Aside from pulling out a meaningful win that puts the Tigers in the driver’s seat to host throughout the playoffs, it improved them to 7-0 and came with minimal penalties.
After committing 18 penalties for 188 yards against Winfield, the Tigers were tagged just seven times for 45 yards Friday, both season lows. Two of those penalties came on special teams after the kickoff went out of bounds.
“That was on me, like the penalties have been on me from the beginning,” Taylor said. “It’s not on somebody else. It’s not on kids, it’s not on reporters, it’s not on officials, It’s on me. I didn’t do a good job of getting my team disciplined. I allowed them to be out of control, and that was my fault, because I want my kids to play at a high level, right? I want them to play with intensity, but I don’t want them to show up other teams. And I think that kind of crept in because, not because of how our kids are or how our kids act. Everybody paints us in this negative light. It’s what they see on TikTok, it’s what they see on Saturday.
“Turn a game on tomorrow and tell me if dudes aren’t acting the same way that you used to see us act. It’s just a culture now. But that stopped, and I challenged our kids. We ran, and we made up for it, and it’s my fault. It’s not their fault. It’s my fault. I take full responsibility for those two being ejected. If I would have never allowed it to get out of control, like I have, those kids wouldn’t have been ejected. It’s not anybody’s fault but mine. We’ve cleaned it up. We’re going to continue on that path. We’re by no means perfect, but if we can, and hey, hats off to Beckley! There wasn’t any jawing on both sides. Coach Sarrett, he did a great job keeping his kids composed. Last year we were at the 50 yard line and five coaches are screaming at one another. Today, it was almost weird, because it’s so quiet. Nothing’s going on. That’s because they were disciplined, we were disciplined and this is the kind of product you want to put out there and this is the kind of product that’ll get you to where you want to go.”
Bryce Ford led Beckley with 62 yards on 16 carries while Jennings finished with 250 yards from scrimmage. Barker completed 5 of 10 passes for 72 yards and a touchdown.
Beckley (5-2) will host Spring Valley next week while Princeton (7-0) will travel to Independence.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
